Water Safety Tips
Drowning is the second leading cause of injury related death for children ages 1 to 14. We lose almost 900 children each year to drowning related death and thousands more are hospitalized. Though swimming pools are a major source of these drowning, children can drown in as little as one inch of water. By carefully practicing water safety, you can reduce these risks greatly.
- No one should swim alone. This includes adults.
- Supervise your children around any water, not just pools.
- At least one adult should be a full time supervisor when children are around water. This means their full attention is on the children at all times. They should not participate in any distracting activities like reading, talking on the phone or playing games.
- Children should learn to swim at about age 4.
- All members of the family should learn CPR (offered by the City of Peoria Fire Department)
- Make sure your home pool has a fence with a self-closing and self- latching gate.
- Do not keep toys in or around the pool. This may encourage children to reach and fall in.
- Keep a phone near the pool. In case of an emergency dial 911.
- Keep children away from buckets with liquids in them. Children can drown in as little as one inch of water.
- Close and secure toilet lids.
- Use a proper flotation device for children who cannot swim yet. Water wings and other “toys” should not be used as personal flotation devices. These may give parents a false sense of security. Air-filled water wings can puncture and deflate.